Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
She clutched tighter, the information scary. I knew because it was for me as well.
After a moment I turned to face Lucien, nudging Celia behind me. “What’s going on?” I asked him.
“I think you know,” he repeated, still holding the gun on me, lifted now to chest level.
“I don’t.”
He huffed out a breath. “About six months ago, I started looking for the people Breckin loved.”
“Why?”
“Because it was finally time.”
“I don’t understand,” I prodded him. “Help me understand.”
“He took Turi away from me.”
And that fast, everything made sense. “You blamed Breckin.”
“Of course,” he said flatly. “It was his fault, after all.”
Celia slid her hands over my back and grasped my jacket.
“Why did it take you so long?”
“What do you mean?”
It was imperative that I keep him talking, the longer the better. I needed to give Cord time to wake up and find me. “I mean,” I said, clearing my throat, “why did it take you so long to go after Breckin?”
“I wasn’t after Breckin,” he said tightly. “Don’t you understand?” His voice was pitched high and angry.
Celia’s breath caught.
“Sorry,” I soothed him. “I misspoke. I meant, why did it take you so long to go after the people Breckin loved?”
“You mean why did it take me so long to formulate what I needed to do and exact my revenge?”
“Yes. That’s what I mean.”
He exhaled, and I saw him visibly calm. “I tried for so long to let it go, to get over it, to be okay.”
“But you just couldn’t.”
“That’s right. It was the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last before I went to bed. It was always there, in the back of my head, playing like a movie on an endless loop,” he said, his breath catching. “It was like being suffocated slowly, and no amount of trying to forget about it, trying to be normal, helped.”
“So you finally gave in.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Six months ago I started looking for everyone he’d been to bed with since Turi.”
I panicked hearing that, thinking of how many people that could be, imagining that Lucien must have dropped a lot of bodies. But then I realized, that couldn’t be right. “Not that he’d been to bed with, but that he loved. Isn’t that what you mean?”
“Yes, it is.” He smiled at me. “You understand.”
“It must have taken a while to dig through the people who meant something to him versus those who simply came in and out of his life.”
“You have no idea,” he replied, and I saw his stance relax further; we were just chatting, after all.
I was taking small breaths to make sure my voice stayed flat, no ups or downs. Celia’s hands were fisted in my coat now, and I could feel her shivering.
“So you combed through his social media, I expect.”
“Yes. I had to go back over all of it, all his history, look at who was there and then gone.”
“Smart,” I praised him.
“I thought I found a few he might have been serious about, but really, he was so busy becoming a doctor, rising in his field, there was no time for anyone until Tim Stanson.”
I coughed softly. My throat was just so dry. “But he broke up with Tim before he even met me. That was over and done. He didn’t love Tim anymore, so why go after him?”
“Because he truly cared for Tim. It still counted.”
“And so you killed him.”
“I did,” he admitted but stopped meeting my gaze, more interested in the floor.
“But?” I prodded him, needing to keep him speaking. It was imperative. “I feel like there’s more to the story, Lucien.”
His head snapped up. “You’re a very intuitive person.”
“Thank you,” I said, forcing a smile. “Tell me what happened.”
“I went to Tim’s house—at that point I just wanted to meet him—so I went there on the pretext of speaking to him about an article I was writing on Breckin for a prestigious medical journal.”
“Clever.”
“I thought so, but as he was walking me to the door, he said he’d be sure to call Breckin and tell him about the interview.”
“But it was supposed to be a secret.”
“That’s right. So I said, oh no, it’s a surprise, and he said he wouldn’t tell him then, but he would call anyway, as he’d been wanting to reconnect.”
“Which you assumed meant Tim still had feelings for him.”
“Precisely.”
“And then?”
“Well, then I said something like, it must have been quite serious between you two if you still think of him so fondly, and he was adamant when he said that, oh yes, it was quite serious. He told me they’d been in love.”
I took a breath. “How long after that did you attack him?”
“A week later.”
“I understand he was killed in his home, though.”
“Yes. I couldn’t let it go, so I went there again, knocked him out, and then the fire did the rest.”